As practice shows, lice in a child can appear at any time, even in the most seemingly clean family. Therefore, parents need to be prepared for this in advance in order to be able to recognize the presence of parasites in children in time and begin effective treatment.
The most likely infection of the child with head lice, as the most common in children's groups. But body lice in children are much less common, and with a regular change of linen in them and instilled hygiene skills, even an occasional parasite of this form does not survive on a child's clothes.
Infection of children with pubic lice is rather an exceptional phenomenon and occurs in isolated cases (for example, from infected parents, and sometimes even in public pools).
The photo below shows head lice on a child's hair:
Infection with lice and the symptoms that develop in a child due to the activity of these parasites are called pediculosis in medicine, and in a popular way - lice. Distinguish, respectively, head, clothes and pubic pediculosis. All these diseases can be dangerous for the child in different ways.
Dangers associated with lice infestation
Pediculosis itself causes multiple unpleasant symptoms in a child. Most often, the disease is characterized by:
- itching at lice bites
- the appearance of characteristic reddish color bite marks
- the appearance of gray-blue spots on the skin
- pustular skin lesions.
Pustular lesions are usually the result of scratching lice bites and getting into the scratches of secondary infections. If untreated, the development of the disease can go further and lead to the appearance of ulcers and pyoderma.
The following photo shows characteristic crusts at the places of scratching when a child’s head is infected with lice:
If a child has lice, his body can respond to parasite bites with an allergic reaction with rashes, fever, nausea and vomiting, and headaches. For this, even a few parasites are enough, the enzymes of which, when bitten, enter the child's bloodstream.
Important!
Lice is very dangerous in infants, whose immune system is not yet fully formed. In developed countries, infection of a child at this age is practically impossible due to good sanitary conditions in maternity hospitals, but in third world countries, babies sometimes begin to suffer from body lice bites within a few weeks after birth.
Body lice and much less often head lice are carriers of pathogens of typhus and relapsing fever, as well as some deadly rickettsiosis. These diseases are characterized by severe course, blurring of symptoms and the likelihood of death. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with lice in a child immediately after the discovery of parasites in him, and in the ideal case, parents should clearly know by what means and how exactly such a fight should be carried out.
Here are some more photos of head lice:
Review
“As soon as kindergarten began, the child often began to have lice. We withdraw them promptly, but this epic does not stop for a month at all. The worst thing is that the child has an acute reaction to lice - it is sprinkled all over the body, the temperature rises, and so on until the lice are removed. We already went to swear at the administration, wrote a complaint against the doctor, but still there is a child or several in the garden who have lice and who infect other children. At least hire a nanny and leave the kindergarten!
Lyudmila, Ivanovo
Where and how to look for lice in a child
You can detect lice in a child by several characteristic features:
- Itching, which often causes the child to scratch his head.
- As well as bite marks on the scalp. Such bites are small, have a bright pink color and a red center.
- The presence of nits on the hair - lice eggs. Nits in a child are usually more noticeable than in adults, due to the less dense hair. They look like small white dots on the hair.
- And finally, the presence of the lice themselves on the hair. Usually they become especially noticeable with a strong infection of the head, but a close examination of the hair can reveal single parasites.
In the video, Dr. Komarovsky tells in detail how to determine the presence of lice in children. To do this, you can use a simple table lamp - with its light, nits in children's hair become especially noticeable:
About lice and scabies
The photo below shows the head of a child infected with lice, nits are clearly visible:
When trying to recognize lice in children, you should first check the head, upper neck and places behind the ears. Much less often, lice appear on the eyelashes of a child, and sometimes on his eyebrows. Usually pubic lice prefer to parasitize here:
Head lice in children look like tiny, light-colored bugs crawling in their hair.
Signs of lice in a child do not appear all at the same time. Most often, at first, the behavior of the baby, who often scratches his head, draws attention to himself, and only then the bites and the insects themselves begin to be detected. Therefore, you should always pay attention to how the child behaves, and with obvious signs of anxiety, examine him.
Where and how can a child pick up parasites?
Almost always, a child becomes infected with lice only in a team from another child or adult. Lice is most actively spread in kindergarten and school, where children constantly participate in games and fights, use toys and household items together.
Important!
Lice are transmitted from child to child already when the infected baby does not yet have characteristic signs of them. Therefore, a child with lice can go to kindergarten or school and infect peers for several weeks until parasites are found in him.
Sometimes lice are transmitted from relatives and friends who play with the baby and spend time with him. In more rare cases, parasites infect a child in public places and even in swimming pools.
Review
“Lice appeared in our kindergarten. Moreover, the child brought the infection from there, we treated it, informed the director of the kindergarten, and two months later - a new infection. And so - three times! Once, after infection at home, a second child was infected by him.Can you imagine - lice in a child at 2 years old! He doesn't even have hair! We no longer knew where to complain, we wanted to leave the kindergarten. Until they wrote a complaint to the sanitary and epidemiological station. I don’t know who called the director there, but on the second day a team of doctors from the regional center arrived at the kindergarten, found several children who had lice all the time, and forbade them to go to the garden. And that's it. After that, the child never got sick.
Irina, Vinnitsa
It should always be remembered that the peak infectivity of children in kindergartens occurs at the beginning of autumn, when kids infected over the summer distribute their lice to others.
After the autumn scandals, everyone is usually treated, and until the next spring there are only separate precedents for the appearance of lice in kindergarten.
Once again, we note that measures to remove parasites should be taken immediately after signs of lice were found in a child.
Appearance of lice: are they exactly?
It is difficult to confuse lice with other parasites: practically not a single blood-sucking arthropod bites in the hairy part of the body, while lice live in the hair. Sometimes a tick can bite in the hair, but tick bites in children are rare and do not cause constant itching.
And further: It's time to finally get those annoying nits out of your hair (the article has over 100 comments)
In the photo - a few lice:
For comparison - a photograph of a tick (note that it has 8 legs, and lice have only 6 of them):
And in the next photo - a bed bug larva:
A louse accidentally encountered on clothes differs from bedbugs in its small size and light color, and from fleas in the same light color of the body integument and inability to jump.
Lice and nits in children always occur simultaneously, and usually not one or two parasites are found, but a whole settlement of them, consisting of adults, larvae of different ages and nits. Lice are practically the only parasites that can be found in large quantities on the hair of a child.
Child-safe lice control products
The following remedies are commonly used to combat lice in children:
- Special lice shampoos - LiceGuard, Hygia, NOC are suitable for children. Medications such as Pedilin and Medilis for children should not be used due to high toxicity and severe side effects.
- Creams - the most famous are Nix and Nittifor. The latter can only be used for children over 5 years old.
- Combs from lice and nits are absolutely safe means, requiring about 5 days of persistent combing of the child's head to achieve the effect.
Before you decide what exactly to poison the lice in a child, you should find out about the possibility of using this or that remedy in children of the appropriate age. Pediculicide sprays for children are not usually used due to the danger of inhalation of the insecticide. The only exception is the Nyuda spray, which does not contain toxic substances.
The procedure for removing lice in a child
The remedy for lice is applied to the head in the doses and in the order indicated in the instructions, and the necessary time is maintained. After that, the drug is washed off, and the hair is combed through the strands with an antiparasitic comb (for example, you can use the AntiV lice and nit comb). You can not use combing, but then with a high probability the treatment will have to be repeated.
Children should not be treated with strong toxic ovicidal drugs on their heads, and therefore some of the nits on the hair will often remain alive. They are either combed out with a comb, or the larvae that come out of them are destroyed a week after the first treatment of the head.
For better combing of nits in a child, you can pre-treat the head with a solution of citric or acetic acid. These remedies weaken the attachment of nits to the hair. It is only important to observe the correct concentration of the solution.
Review
“At first I didn’t even know what to do if the child has lice. I didn’t even think about kerosene, so as not to poison him. I did not dare to buy any chemical shampoos. But the comb helped me. I bought LiceGuard, combed my child's head for a week, fainted from these nasty things. But she brushed it off! Nyuda is highly recommended now, but I have not tried it. They say it's safe for the baby."
Olga, St. Petersburg
Toxic lice remedies should not be used as a prophylactic.
Today, a good remedy that can be used for prevention is Nyuda's lice remedy, which does not contain substances toxic to the child.
Prevention of infecting a child with lice
Prevention of head lice in children is difficult, since it is usually difficult to achieve all the necessary hygiene rules from a child. However, in any case, the following measures can be taken to reduce the risk of infecting a child with lice:
- Instill in your child the rules for using their clothes and hygiene products.
- Teach children not to have close contact with peers who are vagrants.
- Avoid places where infected people may appear.
- Do not allow the child to play with children who have signs of lice (tangled dirty hair plus frequent scratching of the head).
In any case, every few days the child should be carefully examined and combed his hair. If even a single individual of the parasite is found, you should immediately consult a doctor for a recommendation for treatment. It is undesirable to choose the means of combating lice on your own, since the child may have an individual intolerance to a particular drug.
What you need to know if you can't get rid of lice
Useful video: expert advice on removing lice from a child
How to completely get rid of lice and nits using only the AntiV comb
My child has lice
mine too
Girls, buy a Neat Free scallop - the best remedy for lice and nits! And don't sweat it...
Full Marks is the coolest tool, and Nyuda is crap.
I agree with you Maya. The price justifies the product completely. Full Marx is a great tool. It cost 700 rubles. The set includes a comb.
Shampoo paranit from lice and nits, there is also a comb as a gift. But an expensive one.
My eldest son (4 years old) also became infected in the kindergarten. Couldn't get rid of the lice. From him it was transmitted to the second (3 years) and the third (year). They shaved their heads, only that helped. Until now, I thought that only girls had lice. They told the head of the kindergarten that the child was infected, and she: “We don’t have infected children in the kindergarten, we are all clean.” For the sake of interest, together with the headmaster, I went to ask the teachers about the presence of lice in other children. All the teachers began to complain that all the children have them, but still the parents bring the children to the kindergarten. Here is our garden! ((
I work as a teacher in a kindergarten, and I want to say ... If a child has lice, then the teacher will not accept him. It's in his job description. Children are regularly checked by educators for pediculosis. My group also had this problem recently.
Found lice on my daughter. And she has long thick hair. And at the age of three, you can't force him to sit still. Tomorrow morning I will give battle to these parasites.
And how did you get the lice out?
Pediculen has a cool set. It has everything you need. And it's cheaper than buying everything separately.
My daughter also had lice, brought from the garden. We bought pediculen shampoo at the pharmacy and constantly combed it out. 2 days and it's all gone.